Forest with Sunlit Clearing in the Background 1907

Egon Schiele made this painting, "Forest with Sunlit Clearing in the Background," with oil on canvas. Look at those strokes – how they build up this scene of towering trees and dappled light. I can almost feel Schiele standing there, squinting at the forest, trying to capture the way the light filters through the leaves. Did he struggle with this painting? Probably! You can see the ghost of previous marks and decisions, pentimenti, just like in my own work. It's like he's searching for the right way to express what he's seeing and feeling. The warm browns and greens create this really rich, earthy atmosphere, and the way he layers the paint gives the trees a sense of depth and texture. There's a real sense of immediacy and intimacy here. Schiele’s paintings of nature are so different from Klimt's landscapes, yet you see them both grappling with a similar question of representing space and perception. Painting, for me, is like that – a conversation across time.